In the best possible way, the Hitman series is ridiculous. Its protagonist, Agent 47, is the single most conspicuous person in any crowd. He’s big and bald and white with a bar code prominently tattooed to the back of his head, and not once does this fact deter him from his preferred method of infiltration: wearing a disguise. These aren’t disguises in the elaborate, Mission:…

Any time a new Hitman [official site] game rolls around, I need to know the answer to one question: can I royally screw basically everything up and get away with it? Not for me the Silent Assassin, but more a series of pratfalls, murders performed inadvertently in plain sight, panicked costume changes and awkward scuffles, inevitably culminating in a desperate sprint to the exit with…

After Hitman: Absolution, Agent 47 is in need of another subtitle. Redemption, perhaps, or Contrition. His upcoming adventure has already made headlines thanks to its now-confirmed episodic release schedule but it also seemed to be a game made with the awareness that the previous hadn't given fans of the series quite what they wanted. I was eager to get my hands on it after seeing…

Absolution might be a fitting tag for what looks like a return to form and a casting off of the sins of the past, but since that subtitle's already taken, I'm hoping I'll be able to justify referring to this one as Hitman: Redemption [official site]. So far, the signs are good. I spent some time in the company of IO Interactive's studio head, Hannes…

Why distort one beloved franchise when you can do two at once? The latest DLC for Hitman: Ablutions once again fails to add new missions, ideally in a Streets of Hope vein, but instead a new costume and gun which can only be used in the Contracts mode. This new costume is the kevlar'n'metal duds of one Adam Jensen, he of Deus Ex: Human Revolution…

In which Adam, who has played it all, and Alec, who has played around a third of it, gather to discuss IO Interactive's divisive Hitman: Absolution. Devout Blood Money disciple Adam felt let down by this latest reinvention of Agent 47 - does Alec feel differently? ("No.") They do find some positive things to say about it though, promise. Alec: I've been playing some Absolution.…

So many bodies stuffed into closets, so many innocents caught in the crossfire, so much blood on my hands. Out, out damn spot. Oh no, wait I was wearing gloves the whole time. Everything's fine. Hitman: Absolution is best played without a conscience for its pleasures are of flesh punctured and perforated. I’ve killed in many ways as I played through the game’s opening missions…

Slowly, ever so slowly, Hitman: Absolution has won me over. I was pretty distraught at how Square-Enix were representing the game: it didn't look stealthy enough, it looked overly linear, and there were sexy hitlady nuns. It felt like one of my favourite series was slipping away. But it seems there was a Hitman game there all along, and the closer we get to release…

A very CGI trailer for the new Hitman is, well, odd. It's Agent 47 murdering a collection of scantily clad women, who were moments earlier dressed as nuns. It's a trailer that is to feminism what cricket balls are to genitals. You can watch the Tarantino wet dream below.

We mentioned Hitman's pre-order oddity, Sniper Challenge, a few days back. It seems the PC version of the pre-order is now in alignment with the rest, and is yours today if you pre-order. On another note, pre-ordering is a ridiculous thing, paying money for a game before you know whether it's any good or not. It's mad. Why are you doing it? The game's not…

Hm, I'm not sure how to feel about this. I mean, I'm not usually a fan of pre-order bonuses - especially given how inconsequential they ultimately turn out to be relative to how frequently they're paraded in front of us, bells jingling and doves emerging from places where doves shouldn't be (sleeves, obviously). Also, there was a time when this would've been a free demo…

I doubt and pout a great deal whenever Hitman: Absolution is mentioned. Until I play it I'll hold out hope that I can be a silent assassin, or at least a low-pitched liquidator, rather than the boisterous chap blasting his way through the majority of the footage I've seen. Let me play dress-up and put bodies in cupboards. Let me scope out an area and…

Hitman doesn't just have subtitles, it also has people, and not just the sort that are like pinatas stuffed with money waiting to be popped open by an enterprising exterminator. The first in the "International Contract Agency Files" series gives the background detail on Diana Burnwood, the hairless one's handler. The word is that Absolution is a more personal story, so maybe the Olyphant man…

Just after seeing Agent 47 do his rather John Woo-like thing, our man Dan Gril sat down with Tore Blystad, game director for Hitman: Absolution aka Hitman 5 aka Hitman: Subtitle, and asked the most pressing of questions: whether we've lost the silent assassin to open action aimed at impatient console gamers, or if stealth and caution are still very much the order of the…

Agent Griliopoulos was dispatched to see the game formerly known as Hitman: Subtitle for us. He returned bathed in blood, dressed as a sailor, and bearing these words. Update: now with brand new screenshots! Oh, we are skeptical souls at RPS. Though we loved Hitman: Blood Money, we have been somewhat wary of Hitman: Absolution. Partially, because there are mild changes to something we loved…

The VGAs coughed up a new trailer for Hitman: Absolution, which is crammed with sneaking, stealthery and silence. Except for all the parts with windows exploding in slow motion and The Bald One murdering almost every single person in his path, which just happens to take him through a hospital ward. Those parts are quite noisy. There's also a crying nun. She is crying because…

When I witnessed a playthrough of Hitman: Absolution I expressed my concern that there was more murder than assassination and that the level shown looked rather linear. I was fully aware that what was on display may not be representative of the actual hits in the game, showing barcoded-billiard-bonce on the run rather than in his more usual mode of calmly calculated cash-for-cadaver commerce. Here…

Somehow, this is the first official in-game footage of Hitman: Subtitle which has been released to the hungry eyes of the public. Feast, feast! As Adam worried in his preview t'other week, old 47 doesn't appear to be quite so silent an assassin as he once was, but it's good to see he's still playing fancy dress in between punching people and shooting people and…

Hakan Abrak, lead producer of Hitman: Absolution, held a developer session at the Eurogamer Expo this weekend and I was there to see the game in action. The version we were shown was a pre-alpha build running on PS3 and only covered a single level but, notepad in hand, I managed to scribble down enough impressions to share the bits that made me excited and…

Perhaps not in person, but in spirit. IO Interactive are sending lead producer Hakan Abrak to give a presentation on Hitman: Absolution to the good people attending E2 this year. We've already had a sneaky peak at some early footage of Hitman 5 in action, but hopefully this will be a chance to see it being played properly, and prod at the mind of the…